Leeds United's Joseph, Osimhen, Aubameyang, captain material and the £20m January tease

A dash of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but much more like Victor Osimhen and a captain of the future. Leeds United’s Mateo Joseph should hire Josuha Guilavogui as his agent. The veteran midfielder has already set about telling the young striker exactly what he needs to hear.

Guilavogui was drafted in last month as a safe pair of hands to guide Daniel Farke’s side on and off the pitch. Minutes may have been scarce, but the 34-year-old has quietly impressed in his cameos. Behind closed doors, the impact is harder to read, but anecdotes like these give some insight.

The Frenchman is sat with LeedsLive on the indoor training pitch at Thorp Arch. He doesn’t stop smiling. He is articulate. His long and varied career gives gravity to his opinions and star power to his stories.

Guilavogui spent three seasons with Aubameyang at the start of the striker’s career, at Saint-Etienne, and he sees some similarities with another young forward at the start of their career. Joseph is the same age the Gabonese was when he started sharing a dressing room with Guilavogui.

It is Osimhen, though, where the number 23 really sees the likeness. The Nigerian was only 18 when he first played with the Leeds man, at Wolfsburg, where he made his professional debut.

Neither striker is a terrible comparison for Joseph to be given. At 35, Aubameyang has 240 goals in 468 games, while Osimhen, 25, is already onto 96 strikes in 180 outings.

“I spoke also with Mateo Joseph and, for me, he looks a little bit like Aubameyang, but the way he is, I was speaking with him about Victor Osimhen,” Guilavogui exclusively told LeedsLive. “I played with him when I was in Wolfsburg.”

Joseph started the first eight league games of the season, but one goal over that period, while Joel Piroe kept notching from the bench, saw him eventually usurped. The Spaniard started the next six in the dugout, but after a hectic week, he saw a recall in the last game against Queens Park Rangers.

Guilavogui’s tried to give him encouragement and even joked a goal or two might yet attract some big money offers for him in January. He even sees captaincy attributes in the 21-year-old on the training pitch.

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He said: “I told him ‘Mateo, I know now it's hard, you start[ed] as our striker and now you are coming in the bench, but you had already three chances and if you scored the three chances, maybe you will start the other game or maybe even this winter someone can come and say we want to buy you for £20m. I hope you will stay!’

“It’s just to tell him he's charismatic. He's really charismatic and even during training he is like, you have just a few strikers you can see they can be captain.

“Mateo, in his career, could be a captain because when he's working for the team, when he is fighting for the team, he gives you this feeling ‘I will work even harder because this one is working as an example.’ I'm sure he will have a great career.

“He has this passion and I can see. I saw that in Victor Osimhen and look at what he is doing. I really hope Mateo can make it.

“He has great qualities. He's very good one against one, good in front of the goal and, like I told you, he has this aura, this charisma he can achieve a lot.”

Guilavogui had to go through the same frustrations as a player breaking through with Saint-Etienne. One Blaise Matuidi, who would go on to play for Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and France on 84 occasions, was in his way.

He wants to set United’s youngsters the example Matuidi set him 14 years ago. He hopes in five years’ time, with Leeds in the Premier League’s top five, Joseph might remember the old fella who came in from Germany for a few months with those pearls of wisdom.

“At the end, you just have to give your experiences,” he said. “I will be really happy if, I don't know, in five years, he is playing for Leeds and you are in [the] top five and he will speak to another player, a young player, and say ‘Hey, I remember there is one old player, he came from Germany, he spoke to me and stayed in my mind.’

“I was the same when I was young. I had players in front of me like Blaise Matuidi in my position. When I was not playing I was like (chin down and arms crossed), the team was enjoying and I didn't play.

“He said: ‘Josh, you have to think about the team. Tomorrow, you will be the one who will play and the one on the bench has to be happy because we are a team.’

“This day is in my mind and now it’s the same. This is my role. Maybe I will not play a lot, but I have to make 100 per cent sure they are looking at me and saying ‘Hey, if this old guy is giving his best, I have to make it.’ That's why I'm here.”